sally_in_wales
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Roadside chestnuts?There is a stretch of busy road near me lined with sweet chestnuts. Normally I'd never pick food along a busy road or fear of fumes, and various other nasties in the vegetation, but would shelled nuts like sweet chestnuts be ok or will they still contain undesirable gak from the cars?
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tahir
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The shell is very porous, it'd take up both gases and liquids, but for fresh chestnuts I'd take the risk 
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marigold
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Mmm, there's a huge chestnut tree near me dumping LOADS of shells onto the pavement, but most of them have 3-4 very unformed nuts inside - I wondered if was normal that not all fruits develop or whether it's due to the dry weather. I only found one decent sized nut in a quick forage the other day. If it's not raining tomorrow I must go and have another look - taking my gardening gloves with me!!
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tahir
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Quite possibly inadequate pollination, is there another in the locality? To get a good crop you really need a pollinator within a few 10s of metres. Of course it could also be drought, but more likely pollination as it's not just the distance, some trees are really bad at shedding pollen.
In my plantings (named cultivars at 10 mtr spacings) I've been advised to alternate a row of heavy pollen shedders with poor ones to ensure a good set.
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marigold
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I think there are at least two trees, I'll have a closer look next time I go past.
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cab
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Re: Roadside chestnuts? | sally_in_wales wrote: | | There is a stretch of busy road near me lined with sweet chestnuts. Normally I'd never pick food along a busy road or fear of fumes, and various other nasties in the vegetation, but would shelled nuts like sweet chestnuts be ok or will they still contain undesirable gak from the cars? |
Most motorways have food crops growing right next to them. I rekon you'll be okay.
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sean
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Re: Roadside chestnuts? | cab wrote: | | I rekon you'll be okay. |
They stopped putting lead in petrol a while ago now, which as far as I recall was the only thing that built up much in roadside crops anyway.
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cab
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Re: Roadside chestnuts? | sean wrote: |
They stopped putting lead in petrol a while ago now, which as far as I recall was the only thing that built up much in roadside crops anyway. |
Yeah, I believe they spike petrol with benzene now instead don't they?
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sean
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Never did anyone any harm.
There were some quite interesting figures for the lead content of wine produced from vineyards by French motorways around at one stage.
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